Most Recent Messages in Surgery & Recovery

Almost a month post-ablation

Well, it has been an interesting ride so far. First week after the ablation, absolutely nothing went awry (no a-fib, no skipped beats, no irregular beat, etc). At exactly week two, I started having irregular beats again, but nothing major. At week three, I started having a-fib and a-flutter again, but again, not as severe as it has been in the past. Ironically, the most noticeable change since the surgery is that my resting heart rate seems to have increased. I've always heard that the hear...

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OUCH!

I was implanted one week ago today. I woke up this morning with a lot of chest pain specifically right over my heart. I can feel my heart beating very hard, it slows down and then I feel very hard THUMPS on my chest and it starts all over again. Last week in the hospital I mentioned to my cardio that I felt thumps on my chest and was it the PM? He said there was no way I was actually feeling the PM because of the amount of voltage, etc. I'm guessing I don't have a defibrillator just pacer. I...

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av node ablation and pacemaker

had this procedure 2/2/10 and don't know anyone who has had it. would love to hear from those who have. I didn't really know what I was getting into but wanted relief from 10 yrs. of Atrial fibrillation, trying medications and 2 ablations that didn't work.

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Recovering

Hi Everyone,
I am home from my epicardial lead placement. It was not a fun time, but I recovering nicely at home now. Surgery went well Thursday. Had a real bad day Friday, nausea and lots of pain. Pain control is diffucult for me due to allergies to codiene and morphine. It limits the choices. I'm doing okay on just 1 darvacet every 4 hours. Got home yesterday. Pacemaker people told me the pacemaker is working fine. The insicions seemto be healing well. I can take off all the ban...

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pm implant while sick?

Hello all.
I am scheduled to have an EP study & a pm implant on Feb. 23rd. I have had a chest infection & sinus infection of some sort for quite some time. Should I call the doctor? Will they still do the pm implant if I am sick?

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Brand New here/My story

Hello! I just joined this group tonight and just joined the pacemaker implantation world on Monday, Feb. 8th. To me, my story is very strange.
Almost a month ago now, I went to bed on Saturday night telling my husband that I was really tired, a little short of breath and was going to bed. He asked me lots of questions, concerned that maybe I was having a heart attack but I ignored them all and went to bed. The next morning the feelings were the same but I had some chest pain as well. We...

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shocks

Has anyone felt weird shock like feeling to your heart? I woke up last night and covered in sweat and felt a shock to the lower part of my heart and a heavy beat and it did this like 3-4 times in a row. I was sitting here a little while ago and it did it again and does not feel right, its weird. Has anyone had this before? I just got my PM 3 days ago so its still new to me.

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Numbness

Has anyone experienced numbness around shounder, top of arm, armpit area after pacemaker implant. Spoke to my doctor yesterday and he said it is probably residual from local anesthesia used. My surgery was last Thursday. How long until this feels normal?

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Jumps

At 11p i started getting jumps in my heart like and heavy beat followed my burning/stinging feeling. It hurts and feels weird nurse said nothing showing up on monitor but i knw what im feeling i dnt like not knw ing whats going on. Any one have this b4 ?

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shifting

ICD was placed on Monday...

When I shift from my back to more on my right side...or sometimes when I sit up from laying down, I feel like the device moves. Is this normal or dangerous? Surely the leads or long enough to handle a little shifting??

Thanks

btw...mine is under the top part of my breast tissue, not just under the skin.

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No sleep

Here at hospital, and cant sleep for anything. In a lot of pAin and perks not working. I am however keeping positive. The nurses are really nice. I hope im not getting sick iv been coughing a lot and it hurts my chest where i got my PM.

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back to the gym!

Had my first trip back to the gym with my new hardware! Two weeks and two days post op. I didn't do arms and didn't push it, but I got in 20 min on the elliptical and felt good.

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Epicardial Lead placement Tomorrow

I am getting a little anxious about the surgery scheduled for tomorrow. They will be removing one lead from inside my heart and putting one on the outside. I thought it was just one incision on my left side, but I'm wondering if they will have to open up my shoulder incision to attach the new lead to the pacemaker/defib. Does anyone know? Susan

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PM Surgery

Well Im getting ready for my hospital stay. I have a lot of food allergies so I have to take plenty of food with me. I have to be there at 10 am and my PM surgery is at 1pm. I have to get there so early because they have to blood type me and give me a blood transfusion because my platelet count is so low. I should be getting my bone marrow aspiration results today; but not the biopsy for 2weeks. The hematologist said that the results today will confirm his diagnosis of ITP which is an autoimmune...

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Here at hospital

Here at the hospital. Chest hurts a lot but my spirits are up. It was not bad at all i dont remember much at all. I said all kinds funny stuff they said lol i was so out of it. I cant wait to get this weight off my chest 35 more mins:))

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pM surgery

My surgery went well 2 hrs i dont remember much and felt good coming out. My chest sore now from having to keep this 2 lb weight on it. Nuse said i have keep it on for 6 hrs. Im waiting to get into my room for the night. I cant believe how well it went :) thNk God. ThNk all of you for your prayers and support.

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first postop dr visit

I was really nervous yesterday about going to my first dr visit since my surgery a week ago, so I took a Xanax just to calm down a bit. I got my favorite nurse, which helped, and the cardiologist didn't seem to be in a rush (that helped too). I found out I have an AV node block (she said high grade so assume that is 3rd degree) that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't, but lately my heart rate readings were consistently low in the 30s and 40s. The setting on my PM is 50 to 120 and so far th...

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Ablation

Hi Folks


I had my PM implanted almost 4 years ago, I had Bradicardia and AF, at first the AF totally disappeared with 0 incidents over the 6 month period. The Doc messed about with medication and it gradually came back. When the PM technician downloaded the data it showed I was 6% of the total time in 6 months in AF, At recent visits this changed to 7 / 8 / and it November it was 14%.
But last week it got a hell of a lot worse and was really fatigued. My Doc referred me to...

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Home

Surgery was Monday and I came home yesterday.

I really am having issues wondering why I let them do this. The surgery itself went great. I DO NOT remember anything...not even the test shock! Thank you Jesus for that. The pain afterwards has been worse than expected. The vicodin would work on the pain, but make me feel like I was spinning and caused EVERYTHING to come back up. Now I'm on dimerol, and the nausa is better, but the pain is worse.

Did they try to put a 5...

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Scars

I had a very interesting chat with the plastic surgeon yesterday about scarring. She was called in by the EP to clean up my pocket and make it more comfortable, but since she was there she did the closing also.

She said it was closed up enough now (2 wks post op) that I can start putting lotion or whatever on it. I asked her what she recommended, she said "whatever you want!" She said keeping it moist- with whatever we choose to use- will make it feel better as it heals but will not...

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